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Jealousy… That ugly word. The old green eyed monsters herself. I am going to start a series on jealousy and how I to overcome various forms of jealously. So for today, I will start with my own jealousy.
Do you ever feel rejected when your child/children prefers the other parent? I lament about that all the time. I mean, I painstakingly breastfeed/breasfed each of them for more than a year, shower my love, sacrificed my beauty sleep, sacrificed my diet (to have more milk), my career - let’s not even go there, my figure. the list is endless. At the end, here’s how I dealt with the monster in me.
1. Recognize and Validate that feeling. All feelings are real. Next Step, deal with it!
2. Sometimes, I just feel lousy because I am too tired from wearing too many hats. That’s when the monster kicks in! When I am too tired. I always tell my children… ” A tired mommy is a cranky mommy”. Even I prefer my husband to me when I am cranky! When I recognized that, I don’t feel so bad, I just take this special time off to either sleep or do something for myself (like put on my favorite mask)
3. Children have phases in their lives. Sometimes they like fish, sometimes they like chicken…Do I need to analyze or over analyze? No. Take my second daughter for example, sometimes she likes daddy to make her sleep, sometimes she prefers me. I initially felt very jealous the day came when she told me she wanted daddy to make her sleep. It’s a phase they go through. Remember, a child needs both mommy and daddy. I started to count my blessings that my daughter has a good man to depend on. What am I jealous about?
4. Sometimes, the child’s personality clicks with the parent. That’s natural. Certain character type will click. Have more children. Eventually one will click with you.

* Teaching Parenting Skills *